Why does the PIA application show as a virus?

TL/DR: The PIA application does not contain a virus however the way it works sometimes gives a false positive by anti virus software.

The Private Internet Access application sometimes throws up a false positive in anti virus software due to how it works.

In order to ensure your privacy and safety, the PIA application creates temporary files and folders with randomised names and this behaviour is sometimes seen with computer viruses.

If you’d like to confirm you have our installer, you can also verify the SHA-256 checksums of the installer with those on our checksum page here. However, note that these will not match if you’ve downloaded the installer from that initial email, since those installers also include your username to simplify installation.

When our software has been flagged by antivirus software, we work with the relevant vendor to get the false positive removed.

If you would like to add file exceptions to your antivirus software, please contact our support team who will be happy to assist you with instruction relevant to your operating system and software.